That Great Passport Doodle Story? Yep, a Fake

This screenshot of the news posted to Weibo by the official China National Radio shows the portrait-photo page of a Chinese passport that social media users said left a father stranded in Seoul after his four-year-old son drew on the travel documents.

Weibo

It was a story too crazy to be true: A child doodles all over his father’s passport, including the portrait photo, rendering it unusable and both stranded in a foreign land.

A photo of a scribble-strewn Chinese passport has gone viral online in recent weeks, with multiple websites running with the story about a four-year-old boy’s work of art failing to impress Korean immigration officials and preventing his father from leaving Seoul.

The photo has been a hit on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter, making its way to some official accounts as well.

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But after the story was reported by foreign media, some pointed out that the image contained obvious signs that indicated computer modification.

And the site was right. An official at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul told Korea Real Time the photo was a hoax and the South Korean immigration service hadn’t prevented anyone traveling because of child’s play on official travel documents.

South Korean immigration authorities early Thursday couldn’t be reached for comment.

Shame. It was a good story. Unless you were the fictitious father, that is.